Jinxed, acquisitioned & over the top
by planet p
Summary: AU; Jarod acquires another clone; Gem may be a little jealous.


**Jinxed, acquisitioned & over-the-top** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _the Pretender_ or any of its characters.

* * *

_2009_

The 13-year-old boy was a White File, and a 'Gemini,' a successful clone of the Center Corporation's Project Gemini. Some called him Dorjee, others Lamp; Jarod called him a weighing 'acquisition.' He'd yet to establish of whom the boy was a clone, but the most important factor was that he was another Pretender, and he was not family. Genetic analysis confirmed; he was leverage, a bargaining chip.

With his former names out of option, Jarod had chosen another name for the boy; he'd called him Darwin. The boy had, however, taken to calling himself Daniel, instead, preferring the inclusion in USA's Top 10 since the 1980s over the 'older' name.

Jarod quietly held onto his reservations over trusting Daniel, alongside his mounting anxiety at his inability to crack the meaning of 'White File.'

"Why do they call you 'Lamp'?" Mo enquired, the pair seated on opposite sides of the cabin's table. Mo, or Geronimo, was 24; Jarod's clone and younger brother, and the first successful clone the Center had had, named after the project which had instigated his creation. At times, Jarod had heard him refer after himself as his 'time-challenged twin.'

Jarod had taken the cabin in a trailer park to vary from his usual routine, to add a little 'spark,' and a little greenery. He'd intended to work for the most of the morning, but Mo's question had got him, and he found himself silently eavesdropping.

"Because I'm brilliant," Daniel replied. The answer, it seemed to him, could not be more _sorely_ obvious.

"What's new, Danilo!" Mo flung back.

Jarod repressed a grin. He had found the comment mildly comical; coming from his brother, particularly, though he had the idea that it had been made especially in the knowledge that Daniel would not be of the same opinion.

"So says the Red File," Daniel commented easily, absolutely certain of his supreme superiority.

The elder of the pair smiled from across the table. "If you're so brill, why didn't you name yourself Robert? Afraid it was jinxed?"

"As if!" Daniel shot, creasing eyebrows. "How would it be jinxed?"

Mo nodded, frowning in mock thought. "How would that be?" he asked himself.

Daniel shook his head; the show didn't impress him.

Mo tossed his head, fixing his eyes to the younger boy. "So, what's a White File? You're a _shining beacon in the black_, but you're fairly idiotic for someone who's so 'brilliant'!"

Far from a smile, Jarod fought to suppress a choke, quickly becoming alarmed at his brother's spiteful, jealous words. Placing aside his work, he stood to intervene.

"Well, dodge this, _sapphire_!" Daniel hissed. "I'm _Noah's_ clone!" He jumped to his feet to continue his red-faced rant at ridiculous volume across the small table. "I'm wonderful! I'm the best there's ever been! I'm _your_ saviour!"

Faced with such a declaration, Mo couldn't help but laugh in his face. A pointed look from Jarod, standing a distance behind Daniel, he raised a hand to stem the flow of laughter, though it was little help. How could he _not_ laugh at words like that!

Jarod's expression remained unflinchingly disapproving: He'd done the wrong thing!

Painfully, Mo injected a bout of seriousness into his thinking. There was something there, after all. "You're Miss Parker's twin's clone?" he asked, cooling a little to verbalise words as opposed to small, amused sounds.

A scowl raced across Daniel's furious face, embarrassment dispensed of hastily and in an orderly fashion.

"You're a Class Nine Empath?" Mo pressed.

Jarod's unremitting expression wavered. That wasn't strictly _truth_, merely speculation. What it was was three fourths wishful thinking, and one fourth self-promotion; zero percent proven. That wasn't right!

In a snap, Daniel straightened. "Positive, positive; positive!" he raged, volume rising in a steady beat. "I'm the best!"

"Well, slap me and brand me a banana, Jane!" Mo replied, in a state of confusion. "I thought that Noah was the best! But that'd make you, what, second best?"

"I AM THE BEST!" Daniel hollered, getting up onto his chair.

"No, you're just the _next_ best thing!" Mo told him, providing a dose of reality. "You're Skipper; not Barbie! Don't disrespect, it isn't becoming."

Jarod stepped boldly into the mix, raising his voice to just below a shout: "That's enough!"

"I'm the best!" Daniel repeated at holler volume.

"Get down from that chair!" Jarod admonished him.

Daniel jumped down from the chair obediently, and sent a glare skittering across the tabletop toward the older boy. He certainly wasn't acting like a _young man_! "I'm _better_ than him!"

"Always have to have the last say," Mo replied, not _exactly_ glaring, but shooting liberal doses of mocking in the other's direction.

Jarod raised a hand sharply for silence. He'd had it! He'd had it, right now!

"Check it! Check it on my dossier! It'll even say so!" Daniel protested, unable to give up.

"No, it won't!" Mo fired up, narrowing eyes. "It _won't_ talk!"

Fed up, Jarod stalked to the cabin's door, slid it open swiftly, and stormed outside.

Mo stepped around his chair and raced out after his older brother.

"No, we're not talking!" was all the response Jarod gave; Mo let him go.

* * *

"You went over the top," Mo stated, unimpressed, when he returned to the cabin.

Daniel was sitting on the floor, under the table, pretending not to hear.

Mo got down on his knees and peered at him. "You were so bad! Don't you understand?"

"Go away!" Daniel snapped.

"You were bad!"

Daniel's head shot around, face glaring death threats. "She's my sister, why did she have to 'rescue' you!" he bellowed. Why hadn't she rescued him?

"Because you don't exist," Mo told him simply. He'd let him take it how he would; it was true. To Miss Parker, he'd never existed, and still didn't. She already had a twin, that position was filled, and it wasn't him.

Daniel made a small sound in his throat, eyes tearing up. "I want her!" he yelled. "She's mine! I deserve her! I've been _so_ good!"

"You've been bad," Mo reminded him.

"I don't care about you!" Daniel shouted. "You don't count! You're not anything! You're an experiment in science that had the misguided and misbegotten fortune to survive! You're a mistake, a confusion! You're not real! You're silly, inconsequential!"

"You score an 'A Plus' at Horrible 101!" Mo told him, tired, and got to his feet. He was tired of being abused to his face, tired of people labelling him a 'freak'! Even the other freaks! He was just _so_ tired! He walked away, past the table, out of the kitchenette, toward the bunks, and lay down on the bottom mattress.

He was tired.


End file.
